As software applications are used by organizations, large amounts of data are generated and stored. With many applications, the data is stored in a proprietary format of the application used to generate the data. Other applications store data in proprietary database architectures. Thus over time, it becomes more and more difficult for an organization to transition to different applications.
The difficulty of transitioning between applications can come from the size of effort necessary to move data from legacy systems to a new system. The size of effort can require a large amount of human resources, time, and cost. Further, there can be exposure for an organization choosing to transition to a new application. As a result, not only are organizations discouraged from such transitions due to difficulties related to the scale of such projects, organizations that are not comfortable with the exposure are even more reluctant to make an application transition.
Thus, absent a solution that can reduce application transition difficulties, cost, and exposure, organizations will continue to be reluctant to transition from legacy applications.